At the Coffee Shop
by Paperoo
Summary: A story about a girl, a boy and a coffee shop. Just your typical boy-meets-girl scenario, but not quite. Wallflower OC Story Contest entry.


I don't own HunterxHunter. If I do, I'd probably be rich by now.

Note: I have yet to proofread this, so there might be some grammatical errors. Feel free to correct me if you spot them. I don't bite.

Edit: Corrected some typos and grammar. Added some stuff and changed a few sentences.

So, yeah. See yah at the bottom.

* * *

**At the Coffee Shop**

* * *

July 5, Monday

"I'm telling you guys, the girl from last time is way better than this one. This woman looks like a hooker," Mackie said.

"But this one has a nice rack," Charlie, Mackie's twin, insisted. "And if she's a hooker, she's probably a classy one."

Now, it was Eli's turn to talk. "Charlie, there's never gonna be a classy hooker. And since when did whores have class anyway?"

At a table for two by the window, the couple, who were the subject of the trio's argument, were busy talking to each other, completely oblivious of the nosy baristas.

Mackie, almost done preparing a simple house blend a nice old man ordered, said, "You know Charlie, you're kind of right, she does have a nice rack. But she's not exactly my type of gal you see."

"You boys have this strange thing for boobs, don't you?" Eli said, wiping her wet hands on her apron. "Alright guys, back to work." She clapped her hands to get the attention of her two workmates.

"Charlie, make yourself more useful," she handed the teenage boy a phone. "We're almost running out of ice so please call Ice Joe to deliver us some."

Charlie replied with a nod and started pressing a few buttons of the phone.

She turned to Mackie, the responsible one of the twin, who was now preparing an ordered macchiato. "Mackie, my shift's almost over so I'm leaving you guys in charge until Gingy comes, okay?"

Mackie answered with a quick salute to Eli and went back to what he was doing.

The twins went to do their own tasks and Eli was left alone by the counter table. She took the liberty of having a peace and quiet time, waiting for her shift to be over. She looked around the almost deserted café. Only four out of twelve tables were occupied. At a table near the door, there were a couple of girls chatting. By the table near the counter, a middle aged woman was reading a newspaper while taking a sip from her coffee. Near the aisle there's a group of college students seated with their laptops. And finally there's the infamous playboy with his current lady love, sitting by the window. Having nothing else to do, Eli studied the couple.

She found herself not liking the woman. As Mackie had previously mentioned, the woman really does look like hooker with her skimpy outfit and super red lipstick that reminded her of red bell peppers. Her giggles were fake and obnoxious and loud and annoying. Even though the girl from last week was a bit of a snob, she was much more decent than Little Miss Hooker right here.

Her gazed then shifted from the woman to the man. As usual, he was wearing his business suit. And for Eli's standards, he was sort of, attractive. He might be the epitome of tall, dark and handsome if it weren't for his playboy ways.

For three months, she watched him flit from one girl to another, never bringing the same date twice in this café. Eli wondered, why this place? This place is almost non-existent to people except for the ones who go here regularly. Why did he choose this place? Was it because no one would witness him dilly dallying with different girls here except for a few people and a couple of bored baristas? Yes, that must be it.

The alarm of her phone suddenly rang, interrupting her deep thoughts. Her shift's over.

As she was heading to the employees' room, she stole one last glance at Mr. Suit who was still busy entertaining his skimpy dressed date.

* * *

July 8, Thursday

The café was almost empty, Eli noticed, except for a bunch of geeks who were talking about video games and anime, things she never really cared about. On the radio, a woman was singing (but for Eli, it was more like howling) about a boy she never had gotten over.

Eli sighed as she buried her head in her arms on the countertop. The twins weren't present to at least make the café livelier as they were busy preparing for their parents' wedding anniversary and the girl who was supposed to be the twins' replacement had yet arrive.

The woman on the radio finished howling and a livelier song came next when Eli heard the bell jingle, signifying a coming costumer. Instinctively, her head jolted upright to see who was coming over, hoping that it would be the replacement girl who could save her from the impending doom called boredom. However, the person who just came was not exactly what she had been hoping.

Mr. Suit walked confidently towards the counter. His tall stature would make anyone feel small, and Eli, who had never really been the tallest girl, was no exception.

As he strode near her, Eli tucked a loose strand of hair in her ear and tried to smile appropriately (but failing big time).

"Welcome to The Coffee Nook, what can I get you?" she greeted, noticing that there's no girl tailing behind him. That was unusual, she thought. Perhaps his date is suppose to meet him up here.

The tall man greeted back with a slight nod. He then studied café menu that was posted on a wall, taking his time on deciding on what he would want to order. After a few moments, he turned to female barista who was waiting for him to order and said, "One Honeybrush Tea please, I've always wanted to try that one."

"Can I get you anything else?" Eli asked.

"I think that's all I'm gonna get."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm pretty sure," he said with a tone of finality.

"Wouldn't you want to get anything else? That's all you're going to order?"

Raising an eyebrow, he looked at her with confusion. "I'm sorry but no thanks. I'm not that hungry. Maybe next time."

Now, it was Eli's turn to look confused. "What?"

"Huh?"

Both of them stared at each other with puzzled faces and after a split second, they burst into fits of laughter.

"I'm sorry," she said, trying to suppress her giggles. "What I meant was, wouldn't you want to order for your coming friend? I notice you're always with someone whenever going here."

He sheepishly scratched his head, looking slightly embarrassed. "No. No company this time. Just me."

"Okay then. Sorry for the misunderstanding." She punched a few numbers on the register. "That would be 90 jennys."

The man handed the female barista his payment then preceded to the tall pickup counter to wait for his drink.

After preparing the ordered tea, Eli quickly rushed to the counter to deliver the drink to the man who was waiting.

"You're quite observant," Mr. Suit told her while taking his tea from her hand. She couldn't tell whether the remark was a compliment or just plain musing.

"Not really," Eli replied anyway. "It's just that, there are only a few people who know about this place so we always notice regular customers. See that geeky guy in blue?" she pointed at an awkward teenager with freckles sitting with his geek horde at the farthest side of the café. "He always comes here every week and a half. Always orders same things too, like waffles and hot chocolate."

"I see, I see." He squinted at his silver watch and frowned, "Well, I'm in a hurry. I'll be back."

He sprinted to the glass door, and before exiting, he called out to the barista, "Thanks for the tea and it's nice to meet you, Eli." He then ran off.

Eli was left wondering how in the hell did he know her name.

* * *

July 12, Monday

There's a rumor going around the university about a coffee shop that could apparently 'make things happen'. But for Leorio, who was never really a romantic person, he just shrugged it off.

"That place has this magical force of bringing people together," his friend told him one night, when they were eating dinner at a local restaurant. "That's where my fiancée and I met. And now, we're getting married this fall!"

That's when he got really curious. How could a café bring two complete strangers together? Wanting to answer such ridiculous question, he decided to give it a try.

And so he did. He met a bunch of girls from the university, from the neighborhood, and from blind dates organized by his university friends. His dates at the coffee shop would often end in disappointment with neither of them looking forward for a second date. It became like that for three whole months.

After fooling around with girls for quite a while, he got tired. He then came up with a conclusion that people meeting there and ending up together was merely a coincidence. Nothing more than a coincidence

Still, Leorio found himself coming back to the coffee shop. There's something about the place that's warm and welcoming. And besides, the café served good coffee, so why not come back?

He slipped through the coffee shop door and was greeted by the aroma of coffee beans. The café had more people in it than usual, Leorio noticed as he slunk into the line. Before him was a tall woman dressed in office attire who was talking to her cell phone, loudly ranting about how her secretary bought the wrong flavor of latte. Not wanting to listen to the office woman's complaints, he eyed the counter and was relieved to see the barista girl- the same girl he talked to a few days back- working the register. She had a well-rehearsed smile plastered on her face when greeting the office woman who had just put down her phone.

"I want a skinny vanilla caramel latte. Hold the caramel," the office woman demanded.

"Maybe you meant a skinny vanilla latte?" the barista asked.

"You heard what I said. I want it exactly it is."

"Okay, one skinny vanilla caramel latte. Hold the caramel." She gave the woman a forced smile. "That would be 120 jennys."

"Whatever." Office lady handed her a crisp bill. "Keep the change."

After the woman received her receipt, she shifted to the pick-up counter while fumbling her small handbag for something. Leorio came next.

"Hey Eli," he greeted the barista.

"Hey," she greeted back. "What can I get you this time?"

"One skinny vanilla caramel latte, hold the caramel. And the hold the 'skinny' too," Leorio said, grinning.

"Haha. Very funny," she said, rolling her eyes while trying not to smile. "Seriously though, what do you want?"

"One cappuccino and a blueberry cheesecake."

"So you're alone again?" Eli asked as her fingers tip-tapped the cash register.

"Yup."

"Why?" she asked again. He studied her face, looking for a sign of sarcasm but showed none. Instead it showed curiosity.

"It didn't work out the way I wanted to." Damn it. He sounded like he just got dumped.

"So you always get dumped?"

"What? No! It's not like that," Leorio answered."Women are complicated. As simple as that."

"Well maybe it's you who is complicated," she smiled. The kind of smile that felt like there's a wink attached to it.

For a moment, the two just smiled at each other until they were interrupted by a small cough. They jerked their heads to where the noise came from; a teenage boy, whose name tag read 'Charlie', was behind Eli and smirking at them.

"Guys, I hate to break your lovely conversation but there's a little lady waiting for her turn." Charlie then pointed to the person behind Leorio.

Two heads looked down to where he was pointing and saw a young girl, probably around 8, tapping her feet impatiently.

"Oh," the barista said. "Okay, that'll be 175 jennys."

Leorio paid, leaving the loose change at the tip jar. Before going to the pickup counter where his orders were already waiting, he felt a small tug at the sleeve of his suit.

"How did you know my name?" Eli asked, almost reluctantly.

"It's written on your name tag," he replied.

Eli looked down at the name tag that was neatly pinned on her apron. "Oh, I keep on forgetting about that," she mumbled.

"I almost forgot." He held out his hand. "My name's Leorio by the way."

"Elijah, but people call me Eli," she greeted softly and shook the offered hand. Her hand was cold against his warmth.

"Isn't Elijah a boy's name?"

"Uh-huh. I get that a lot."

The girl behind Leorio, who was completely obscured by his tall appearance, poked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows at Eli. "Why are you taking so long?" she whined.

"I better go get my drink," Leorio said, letting go of Eli's hand.

"Yeah, you do that," Eli said.

They looked at each other for one last time before going to their respective businesses.

That was the second time they talked.

* * *

July 14, Wednesday

A curious pair of dark eyes peaked over the top of a laptop towards the cashier counter, searching for a familiar pretty face that might be dealing with a few customers right now. Instead, to his disappointment, he saw a teenage boy operating the cash register. He then eyed the pickup counter and saw no sign of Eli. The same boy was at the pickup counter.

Wait, was he hallucinating? His eyes quickly averted back and forth the register and the pickup counter. He saw two identical boys working on both stations. Must be twins, Leorio concluded. But where's Eli?

As if on cue, Eli emerged from the door with a sign 'Authorized Person Only', a stack of cups piled high in her hands. She gently placed the cups next to the espresso machine and straightened them into neat rows. As she removed her apron after placing the last cup to its place, she caught Leorio looking in her direction and gave him a small smile in acknowledgement. Leorio tried to smile back but Eli had already disappeared through the employees' room.

Leorio frowned. Was she avoiding him?

A couple of minutes after, he heard the door swing and saw her came out from it, now with a bag hanging on her shoulder. She said her goodbyes to her coworkers and quickly walked towards the glass door.

Wanting to catch up with her, Leorio suddenly shut his laptop and hurriedly gathered his things and messily placed them in his bag. He then rushed for the girl hoping that she was still within his distance.

Much to his relief she had just exited the café and was about to head leftwards. He ran after her and called out her name.

She stopped walking and slowly turned her head back. There was mild amusement written on her face. "Hey."

"Hey," he breathed out. "Are you heading home? I can give you a ride."

"No, I was just going for a walk."

"T-that's what I'm planning to do too."

* * *

"So, you're on your second year of medicine? That's so cool," she said before licking the melted ice cream that was almost a millimeter away from touching her finger. "My mom would totally love to have you as her son," she added.

"I don't really see what's so cool in that," Leorio shrugged. "In fact, it's really stressful. And not to mention, there are a lot of projects that has to be done in a short period."

The two walked down the narrow path through the park. Eli was busy finishing the rest of her bubblegum ice cream and Leorio had his hands tucked inside his pockets.

"If you compare that to what I do, it's cool."

Leorio faced the girl. "What do you do then?" he asked. "Besides working at the coffee shop."

"I study at a music conservatory," the girl answered. "It's boring. I know."

"You want to be musician?"

"Not exactly. But I think teaching small children music would be nice. Kinda lame, huh?"

"No it's not. That's really great."

She blew a raspberry in response.

For a few moments, neither of them spoke. Inside Leorio's thoughts, he started to panic. Could they have run out of conversation quickly?

Before he could say anything, Eli spoke first. "Why do you bring different girls to the café? I know it's definitely none of my business but I'm curious."

Now things had gotten interesting. There were so many things he could have said. He could have said a daring "Why not?" Or "I just want to have fun with them." Or "They're just my friends from all over the place." Not wanting to tell her a half-assed lie, he decided to tell her the truth. "Well, it's a funny story actually..."

So he did tell her the whole story. He told her about the rumor going on about the coffee shop, his friend and his fiancée, and his curiosity. He told her about the girls he asked out (and sometimes girls who asked him out). He also admitted that he did tried to make it work, but felt like there was nothing special out of it. Eli listened intently to every detail in his story. She didn't say a word, just took it all in.

After Leorio narrated his story, Eli, who had an unreadable expression just nodded and asked if he actually believed in his friend's words.

"Of course I did," he admitted. "At first I did. But then, it turned out their not exactly true."

"Maybe it's because you just relied on it."

"What do you mean?" Leorio asked. Not as a challenge, but as a genuine question.

"You did say you tried making it work, but did you try getting to know the girl deeper?"

Leorio was silent so she continued, "I think you just heavily relied on happenstances, which should not be. It takes a lot of effort of two people to create chemistry and fondness. Your relationships fail because you're not interested, subconsciously."

"I'm afraid I don't get it," he sighed. He wanted to hear more of her side of the argument.

"Mm-hmm," she stopped walking and just stared up the sky, doing some mental math. "You've been coming to the same café this past three months and you never really took notice on me before the day we talked, right?"

He nodded unsurely.

"That's because you were never interested in me," she simply said. "Dude, you never even bothered to look at the counter to see if I was even there."

Now, Leorio came up with something to say. "What made you think I'm interested in you now?"

"You ran after me when I was about to leave. Surely, it counts as something."

That's it. There was no point in arguing with this girl.

"I like talking to you," Leorio suddenly blurted out. His mouthed dropped open, unsure of why he just say that. Then he realized it was true. He really liked talking to Eli. He glanced nervously at Eli's unreadable visage and braced himself for a reply.

"I like talking to you too," was her reply and she had no idea that her statement it let out a huge boulder on his back.

They spent the rest of the time talking as they strolled aimlessly through the park. They talked in such way people around them assumed they were together. Leorio told her stories about his fun adventures with Gon, Killua and Kurapika (he didn't mention about the Hunter Exam and passing it, he'd save it for another conversation). Eli told him about how she spent the rest of her childhood pretending that helicopters were shooting stars and she would make wishes to it. The best part of their conversations was there were no awkward silences between the two, just pauses until either of them would start up a new topic.

Afternoon came and both decided to call it a day.

"I gotta get home," Eli said. She glanced at the clock of her phone. "It's late."

"Should I give you a ride?" Leorio asked.

"Nah, that's okay. My apartment's just a few blocks away from here. Also, my roommate's gonna have a cow when she sees that fancy car of yours."

They bid their farewells and 'see you next time's' and took off in opposite directions, away from each other. Both were eager to see each other again.

* * *

July 13, Tuesday

Not many know a place called The Coffee Nook, it was located between an antique shop and a dusty bookstore, along a small street which was a fifteen minute walk away from a university. Many people walked past by it on their way to work or school, but nobody really paid much attention on the place. With its plain white exterior, it almost seemed like it didn't want to be noticed. People had always preferred the high-end cafés located at the other street, so The Coffee Nook remained anonymous to coffee enthusiast. But for some individuals, it was a special place that they dubbed as 'A Place of Chance Meetings'.

Leorio headed towards the coffee shop, looking forward for something he couldn't exactly explain. He felt like today was his lucky day; he found a perfect parking space for his car and he just found a silver coin left on the street (it was only a penny, but it was still counted as lucky).

When he was about to pull open the freshly cleaned glass door, he saw her approaching him. Her steps were small and steady, but not fast. She didn't see him at first, her head was cast downwards, headphones in, completely oblivious to the world around her.

As Eli walked near him, she looked up and saw Leorio watching her affectionately. Obviously recognizing him, she took off her headphones and minimized the remaining distance between them.

"Hey," she said. There was a faint smile on her lips.

Instantly, Leorio felt even luckier.

"Hey."

_It takes a lot of effort of two people to create chemistry and fondness._

He smiled as he remembered those words. He wouldn't ask her out. At least, not yet. He would get to know her first, and let her get to know him too. He would wait for the right time. Besides, timing is everything.

He opened the door for her, like how every gentleman does to his lady. She mumbled a thank you and went in.

Maybe, he thought, just maybe, this magical force does exist after all.

At a downtown coffee shop, stuck between an antique shop and a bookstore, two people's lives were intercrossed. It took a lot of time for them to get to talk to each other; it may take a lot of time for them to be together. Would they? Won't they? It didn't matter. What mattered was this moment, right here, right now.

* * *

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my entry for the Wallflower OC Story Contest hosted by Paplio. Ageha.

It's a bit rushed. Sorry.

I know, it's a bit too romancy. Blame the chick lits I read.

I decided to leave the ending vague. It's up to you guys if they will end up together or not.

I really enjoyed writing this. And I also enjoyed creating Elijah. Oh, in case if you're wondering about Eli's age, she's 19 going on her 20. Writing this was a pleasure, since I'm currently writing a pretty dark fic featuring Kurapika. I decided to write something simple and sweet to maintain my sanity.

Songs that helped me get through this story:

1. She's Got You High- Mumm-ra  
2. There is Something Beautiful- Acid House Kings  
3. Looking Out For Summer- Strawberry Whiplash  
4. Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop- Landon Pigg

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed the story. Review please; I'd love to hear more from you guys! Constructive criticisms are highly encouraged.


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